Image Comics' Spawn #300, the landmark issue that matched the previous longest run for a creator-owned comic, Cerebus, was the #1 comic book in September, fueled by a large number of variant covers and a lot of promotion (see "Preview: ‘Spawn’ #300 Variant Covers"), according to information released by Diamond Comic Distributors. It topped Marvel’s Spider-Man #1 (penned by J.J. Abrams and Henry Abrams) and the X-Men titles (House of X and Powers of X).
Top 10 Comics by Units Shipped – September 2019
1. Spawn #300 (Image Comics)
2. Spider-Man #1 (Marvel Comics)
3. House of X #5 (Marvel Comics)
4. Powers of X #5 (Marvel Comics)
5. Powers of X #4 (Marvel Comics)
6. House of X #4 (Marvel Comics)
7. Doomsday Clock #11 (DC Comics)
8. Absolute Carnage #3 (Marvel Comics)
9. DCeased: A Good Day to Die #1 (DC Comics)
10. Harleen #1 (MR) (DC Comics)
The $7.99 retail price meant that Spawn #300 had the top dollar spot as well as the top units rank.
Top 10 Comics by Dollars Invoiced – September 2019
1. Spawn #300 (Image Comics)
2. Spider-Man #1 (Marvel Comics)
3. House of X #5 (Marvel Comics)
4. Harleen #1 (MR) (DC Comics)
5. Powers of X #5 (Marvel Comics)
6. Powers of X #4 (Marvel Comics)
7. House of X #4 (Marvel Comics)
8. Doomsday Clock #11 (DC Comics)
9. Absolute Carnage #3 (Marvel Comics)
10. DCeased: A Good Day to Die #1 (DC Comics)
The win for Image Comics (and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane) pushed Image’s market share to double digits for September.
Comic Store Market Share (Dollar & Unit Share) – September 2019
Publisher Dollar Share Unit Share
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marvel Comics 38.81% 45.51%
DC Comics 27.80% 29.15%
Image Comics 11.01% 8.32%
Dark Horse Comics 3.26% 2.27%
IDW Publishing 3.08% 2.92%
Dynamite Entertainment 2.70% 2.02%
BOOM! Studios 2.48% 2.53%
VIZ Media 1.57% 0.62%
Oni Press 0.76% 0.63%
Archie Comics 0.65% 0.63%
Other Non-Top 10 7.87% 5.42%
The month was a good one for comic stores, with comics and graphic novel sales to comic stores by Diamond up 4.09% vs. the year-ago period. That was all in floppies, which were up 10.87%, while graphic novels continued their long slide with an 11.54% decline. Year-to-date numbers are now positive, up 0.25% from the first nine months of 2018. Comics are up 2.05% for the first three quarters, and graphic novels are down 4.26%.
Batman: Damned topped the top graphic novels by units chart, one of six DC titles in the Top 10. Dark Horse Comics' Umbrella Academy continues to do well, with the third collection taking the #2 spot. Marvel had only one title in the Top 10.
Top 10 Graphic Novels by Units Shipped – September 2019
1. Batman: Damned HC (MR) (DC Comics)
2. Umbrella Academy Vol. 3: Hotel Oblivion TP (Dark Horse Comics)
3. Paper Girls Vol. 6 TP (Image Comics)
4. Monstress Vol. 4 TP (MR) (Image Comics)
5. Immortal Hulk Vol. 4: Abomination TP (Marvel Comics)
6. Heroes In Crisis HC (DC Comics)
7. Batman: The Killing Joke HC (DC Comics)
8. Batman Vol. 10: Knightmares TP (DC Comics)
9. Batman: Nightwalker: The Graphic Novel (DC Comics)
10. The Joker: His Greatest Jokes TP (DC Comics)
Four titles priced at $125 or $150 made the Top 10 Graphic Novels by dollars for September. Batman: Damned and Umbrella Academy Vol. 3 held on to the top two spots on this chart as well.
Top 10 Graphic Novels by Dollars Invoiced – September 2019
1. Batman: Damned HC (MR) (DC Comics)
2. Umbrella Academy Vol. 3: Hotel Oblivion TP (Dark Horse Comics)
3. Monstress Vol. 4 TP (MR) (Image Comics)
4. Marvel Horror Omnibus HC (Marvel Comics)
5. Heroes In Crisis HC (DC Comics)
6. Paper Girls Vol. 6 TP (Image Comics)
7. Timely's Greatest: Golden Age Sub-Mariner by Everett HC (Marvel Comics)
8. Umbrella Academy Library Edition Vol. 1 HC (Dark Horse Comics)
9. Batman Eternal Omnibus HC (DC Comics)
10. Spider-Man by John Byrne Omnibus HC (Marvel Comics)
For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during August, see "Top 500 Comics Actual--September 2019."
For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during August, see "Top 500 Graphic Novels Actual--September 2019."
For links to all previous Top 300 Comic and Top 300 Graphic Novel articles, see "ICv2 Top 300 Comics and Top 300 GNs Index."

In Up Month
Posted by Milton Griepp on October 18, 2019 @ 12:47 pm CT

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